I much enjoyed this piece, and certainly agree with its basic thesis about the seeming triumph of butch-i-fication in America(WICKED speak serves here). And I really appreciated the comments about the ludicrous softening up Clark. Why put up John Wayne and ask him to look and behave like Alan Alda? (Of course, we've already been through our Alan Alda -- the premature ejaculating weenie of the endorsement season, Al Gore.) If you want a general to take on a solider manque like Dubwa, give him all the central casting trappings. Clark in Argyle is like the queer guys in Brooke Brothers, a pointless exercise in wannabe sensibility.
But I am tired of reading about Dean's perceived hysteria as a reason for his failure. The news out of Iowa was Dean's miscalculation in strategy (and denial of the electability issue), and big, startling loss. The scream was after the shocker; just the symbol of his floundering, not the actual floundering. If he'd been even close to Kerry, the speech would've gone unnoticed, and he would've had teeth in N.H.
And I really don't think Dean's pereceived weakness is a lack of butchness. To me, he's the opposite -- butch in the worse sense -- he's everybody's neighbor from hell, the wild-eyed guy who'd beat you up or sue your pants off ya if your dog peed on his roses. He's the confrontational Yup from hell. That hardly makes him "hysterical." It makes hims a scary -- butch -- man.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 1/30/04 at 04:28 PM
